Laughead 

The  Marvelous  Exploits  of 
Paul  Bunyan 


California 

'gional 

cility 


NON-RENEWABLE 


DUE  2  WKS  FROM  DATE 


AND     HI? 
BLUE 


J 


-n 


Marvelous  Exploits  of 


PAUL  BUNYAN 

AS  TOLD  IN  THE  CAMPS 

OF  THE  WHITE  PINE  LUMBERMEN  FOR 

GENERATIONS 


Collected  from  Various  Sources  and 
Embellished  for  Publication 


Text   and  Illustrations 

By 
W.  B.  Laughead 

Published  for  the  Amusement 
of  our  Friends  by 

The  RED  RIVER  LUMBER  COMPANY 

MINNEAPOLIS,  WESTWOOD,  CAL.,  CHICAGO, 
LOS  ANGELES     -:-     SAN  FRANCISCO 


NI\ETEE\ 


-H 


AUL  Bunyan  is  the  hero  of  lumbercamp  whoppers  that  have  been 
handed  down  for  generations.  These  stories,  never  heard  outside 
the  haunts  of  the  lumberjack  until  recent  years,  are  now  being 
collected  by  learned  educators  and  literary  authorities  who  declare 
that  Paul  Bunyan  is  "the  only  American  myth." 

The  best  authorities  never  recounted  Paul  Bunyan's  exploits  in 
narrative  form.  They  made  their  statements  more  impressive  by 
dropping  them  casually,  in  an  off  hand  way,  as  if  in  reference  to 
actual  events  of  common  knowledge.  To  over  awe  the  greenhorn 
in  the  bunkshanty,  or  the  paper-collar  stiffs  and  home  guards  in 
the  saloons,  a  group  of  lumberjacks  would  remember  meeting  each 
other  in  the  camps  of  Paul  Bunyan.  With  painful  accuracy  they 
established  the  exact  time  and  place,  "on  the  Big  Onion  the  winter 
of  the  blue  snow"  or  "at  Shot  Gunderson's  camp  on  the  Tadpole  the 
year  of  the  sourdough  drive."  They  elaborated  on  the  old  themes 
and  new  stories  were  born  in  lying  contests  where  the  heights  of  ex 
temporaneous  invention  were  reached. 

In  these  conversations  the  lumberjack  often  took  on  the  manner 
isms  of  the  French  Canadian.  This  was  apparently  done  without 
special  intent  and  no  reason  for  it  can  be  given  except  for  a  simi 
larity  in  the  mock  seriousness  of  their  statements  and  the  anti-climax 
of  the  bulls  that  were  made,  with  the  braggadocio  of  the  habitant. 
Some  investigators  trace  the  origin  of  Paul  Bunyan  to  Eastern  Cana 
da.  Who  can  say? 


Logging  Road   near    Westwood,   California.    White   Pine   and 
Old  Fashioned  Winters  made  Paul  Bunyan  feel  at  home. 


Bunyan  came  to  Westwood,  California  in  1913  at  the  sugges- 
tion  of  some  of  the  most  prominent  loggers  and  lumbermen 
in  the  country.  When  the  Red  River  Lumber  Company  announced 
their  plans  for  opening  up  their  forests  of  Sugar  Pine  and  Cali 
fornia  White  Pine,  friendly  advisors  shook  their  heads  and  said, 

"Better  send  for  Paul  Bunyan." 

Apparently  here  was  the  job  for  a  Superman, — quality-and- 
quantity-production  on  a  big  scale  and  great  engineering  difficulties 
to  be  overcome.  Why  not  Paul  Bunyan?  This  is  a  White  Pine  job 
and  here  in  the  High  Sierras  the  winter  snows  lie  deep,  just  like  the 
country  where  Paul  grew  up.  Here  are  trees  that  dwarf  the 
largest  "cork  pine"  of  the  Lake  States  and  many  new  stunts  were 
planned  for  logging,  milling  and  manufacturing  a  product  of  su 
preme  quality — just  the  job  for  Paul  Bunyan. 

The  Red  River  people  had  been  cutting  White  Pine  in  Minne 
sota  for  two  generations;  the  crews  that  came  west  with  them  were 
old  heads  and  every  one  knew  Paul  Bunyan  of  old.  Paul  had  fol 
lowed  the  White  Pine  from  the  Atlantic  sea 
board  west  to  the  jumping-off  place  in  Minne 
sota,  why  not  go  the  rest  of  the  way? 

Paul  Bunyan's  picture  had  never  been 
published  until  he  joined  Red  River  and  this 
likeness,  first  issued  in  1914  is  now  the  Red 
River  trademark.  It  stands  for  the  quality 
and  service  you  have  the  right  to  expect  from 
Paul  Bunyan. 


TRADE    MARK 


REGISTERED 


XllT'HEN  and  where  did  this  mythical  hero  get  his  start?  Paul 
^*  Bunyan  is  known  by  his  mighty  works;  his  antecedents  and 
personal  history  are  lost  in  doubt.  You  can  prove  that  Paul  logged 
off  North  Dakota  and  grubbed  the  stumps,  not  only  by  the  fact  that 
there  are  no  traces  of  pine  forests  in  that  State,  but  by  the  testimony 
of  oldtimers  who  saw  it  done.  On  the  other  hand,  Paul's  parentage 
and  birth  date  are  unknown.  Like  Topsy,  he  jes'  growed. 

Nobody  cared  to  know  his  origin  until  the  professors  got 
after  him.  As  long  as  he  stayed  around  the  camps  his  previous  his 
tory  was  treated  with  the  customary  consideration  and  he  was  asked 
no  questions,  but  when  he  broke  into  college  it  was  all  off.  Then  he 
had  to  have  ancestors,  a  birthday  and  all  sorts  of  vital  statistics. 

3      1320556 


For  now  Paul  is  recognized  as  a  regular  Myth  and  students  of  folk 
lore  are  making  scientific  research   of  the  Paul  Bunyan  Legend. 

R.  R.  Fenska,  Professor  of  Forest  Engineering,  New  York  State 
College  of  Forestry,  Syracuse  University,  an  authority  on  Paul 
Bunyan,  writes:  "He  is  not  only  an  ail-American  myth  but  as  far  as 
can  be  determined,  the  only  myth  or  legend  in  this  country.  It  is 
all-American  because  Paul's  exploits  are  all  accomplished  on  this 
continent  and  there  is  no  counterpart  in  the  Old  World.  The  origin 
of  Paul  is  as  much  a  myth  as  the  legend  itself.  There  are  some  who 
feel  that  he  was  known  in  the  Northeastern  forest  back  in  the  early 
19th  century  but  the  best  available  evidence  points  to  the  pineries 
of  the  Lake  States  as  the  "Mother"  of  Paul  Bunyan.  It  is  certain 
that  he  developed  to  the  zenith  of  his  powers  in  that  region  during 
the  '80s  and  '90s." 

Professor  Fenska  points  out  that  Paul  was  a  "Northerner"  for 
when  the  virgin  forests  of  the  Lake  States  began  to  wane  and  the 
lumberjack  shifted  to  the  Southern  Yellow  Pine  region,  little  was 
heard  of  him  for  nearly  a  decade.  Noting  his  reappearance  on  the 
Pacific  Coast,  this  authority  discounts  the  rumors  that  Paul  has  gone 
to  Alaska  and  expresses  the  opinion  that  his  greatest  exploits  will  take 
place  in  the  vast  forests  of  the  west. 

Esther  Shepherd,  Department  of  English,  Reed  College,  Port 
land,  Oregon  has  traced  the  Paul  Bunyan  legend  back  to  Maine  but 
finds  evidence  of  beginnings  that  antedate  the  Maine  epoch  and  is 
still  carrying  on  her  painstaking  search  for  the  ultimate  source. 
Writing  in  the  Pacific  Review,  Mrs.  Shepherd  relates  this  one  about 
Paul's  babyhood. 

"Paul  Bunyan  was  born  in  Maine.  When  three  weeks  old  he 
rolled  around  so  much  in  his  sleep  that  he  destroyed  four  square 
miles  of  standing  timber.  Then  they  built  a  floating  cradle  for  him 
and  anchored  it  off  Eastport.  When  Paul  rocked  in  his  cradle  it 
caused  a  seventy-five  foot  tide  in  the  Bay  of  Fundy  and  several  vil 
lages  were  washed  away.  He  couldn't  be  wakened,  however,  until 
the  British  Navy  was  called  out  and  fired  broadsides  for  seven  hours. 
When  Paul  stepped  out  of  his  cradle  he  sank  seven  warships  and  the 
British  government  siezed  his  cradle  and  used  the  timber  to  build 
seven  more.  That  saved  Nova  Scotia  from  becoming  an  island,  but 
the  tides  in  the  Bay  of  Fundy  haven't  subsided  yet." 

"Seeing  that  this  North  American  Continent  has  only  one  myth 
that  is  entirely  it's  own"  J.  M.  Leever  of  the  Pacific  Lumber  Com 
pany  writes  in  a  San  Francisco  paper,  "It  is  a  pity  that  it  should 


have  been  in  danger  of  being  forgot 
ten."  After  paying  tribute  to  the  work 
of  Prof.  Fenska  and  the  University  of 
Oregon  Mr.  Leever  continues,  "Where 
the  tradition  of  this  Davy  Crockett  of 
the  axe,  this  superman  of  the  camps 
originated,  nobody  can  tell  exactly.  But 
it  is  probable  that  the  stories  of  his 
courage  and  impossible  feats  started 
on  the  St.  Lawrence  among  the  French 
Canadians  and  filtered  into  the  woods 
of  the  Adirondacks,  Michigan  and  Wis 
consin.  Although  at  times  very  human, 
Paul  Bunyan  in  his  bigger  moments 
far  surpassed  any  of  the  figures  of 
classical  Scandinavian  or  Celtic  legend.  For  the  sake  of  the  young 
of  the  land  his  memory  ought  to  be  kept  forever  fresh." 

Lee  J.  Smits  conducted  a  "Paul  Bunyan"  column  in  The  Seattle 
Star  and  published  many  entertaining  contributions  from  oldtimers. 
These  were  turned  over  to  the  University  of  Washington  for  preser 
vation. 

"Standing  alone  in  his  might  and  inventiveness  is  Paul  Bunyan, 
central  figure  in  America's  meager  folklore"  Mr.  Smits  says  editor 
ially,  "Only  among  the  pioneers  could  Paul  thrive,  his  deeds  are  in 
spired  by  such  imagination  as  grows  only  in  the  great  outdoors.  For 
hours  at  a  time,  lumberjacks  will  pile  up  the  achievements  of  their 
hero.  Each  story  is  a  challenge  calling  for  a  yarn  still  more  heroic. 
The  story  teller  who  succeeds  in  eliciting  a  snicker  is  an  artist,  in 
deed,  as  the  Paul  Bunyan  legends  must  always  be  related  and  receiv 
ed  with  perfect  seriousness.  Paul  Bunyan  has  become  a  part  of  the 
every  day  life  of  the  loggers.  He  serves  a  valuable  purpose  in 
giving  every  hardship  and  tough  problem  its  whimsical  turn." 

Mr.  Harry  L.  Neall,  of  Harry  L.  Neall  &  Son,  Mining  Engineers 
of  Eureka,  Cal.,  a  student  of  the  history  of  the  lumber  industry,  has 
written  that  beneath  the  phrase  "invented  lumbering"  used  in  con 
nection  with  Paul  Bunyan,  there  exists  a  basis  of  fact.  Tracing  the 
beginnings  of  the  industry  from  the  cutting  of  "The  King's  Spars"  in 
what  is  now  the  State  of  Maine,  before  the  Mayflower  came  to 
Plymouth  Rock,  Mr.  Neall  states  that  "modern  lumbering,  as  a  sep 
arate  industry  was  really  invented  in  New  York  in  1790  and  that  most 
of  the  oldtime  lumbermen  trace  their  ancestry  to  forefathers  who  were 
a  part  of  this  beginning  of  lumbering."  The  Red  River  people 


were  interested  to  learn  from  Mr.  Neall  that  a  Walker  built  a 
mill  in  Maine  in  1680;  another  Walker  sold  a  two-thirds  in 
terest  in  this  mill  in  1716  and  three  Walkers  were  saw  mill 
owners  in  New  Hampshire  in  1785.  Following  the  Pine  Cutters 
across  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  Mr.  Neall  found  that  the  land  rec 
ords  enable  one  to  pick  them  out  by  their  names  "as  distinguished 
from  the  Palatinate  settlers  who  came  solely  for  the  farm  lands  upon 
which  the  hardwoods  grew."  That  the  Paul  Bunyan  stories  go  back  to 
the  beginnings  of  the  industry  is  the  belief  of  Mr.  Neall  who  heard 
them  in  his  grandfather's  logging  camps  in  Pennsylvania  and  quotes 
this  ancestor  as  connecting  Paul  with  the  early  traditions. 

DeWitt  L.  Hardy,  "column  conductor"  on  the  Portland  Oregon- 
ian  ran  a  Paul  Bunyan  series  for  several  months  and  received  many 
more  contributions  than  it  was  possible  to  print,  though  they  were 
featured  almost  daily,  writes  Mr.  Hardy: 

"Paul  Bunyan  is,  as  your  folklore  sharks  doubtless  will  inform 
you,  about  the  only  true  fable  of  this  character  we  have  in  this 
country.  I  do  not  attempt  to  dip  into  any  of  the  real  sub-surface 
studies  of  its  development,  my  experience  with  Paul  having  been 
severely  practical.  I  first  heard  of  him  in  a  soddy  in  North  Dakota, 
where  I  was  told  of  his  great  logging  operations  when  he  stripped  that 
country  and  removed  the  stumps.  In  the  mass  of  correspondence 
I  received  while  handling  the  Paul  Bunyan  yarns  here,  answers  came 
from  all  corners  of  the  globe  and  from  all  classes  of  people." 

Ida  V.  Turney  Department  of  Rhetoric,  University  of  Oregon, 
and  President  of  the  Oregon  Council  of  English,  has  written  a  chap- 
book  of  Paul  Bunyan  stories, — "gang-lore"  Miss  Turney  classifies 
them,  citing  technical  reasons  why  they  cannot  be  called  "myth" 
"legend"  or  "folk-lore." 

"It  is  distinctly  American"  she  writes,  "No  other  country  could 
possibly  produce  a  literary  type  just  like  it;  for  it  is,  at  least  so  I 
think,  a'symbolic  expression  of  the  forces  of  physical  labor  at  work 
in  the  development  of  a  great  country.  The  symbolism  is,  of  course, 
unconscious,  but  none  the  less  accurate." 

Miss  Turney,  the  daughter  of  a  lumberman,  has  known  these 
stories  from  childhood.  "All  Paul  Bunyan  stories  start  in  a  gang" 
she  says,  "others  are  imitations*  *  *  Perhaps  Paul  Bunyan  is  the 
great  American  epic;  but  if  so  it  is  in  the  making.  In  that  case  it 
seems  to  me  that  any  gang  has  a  perfect  right  to  create  new  stories. 
*  *  *  Paul  has  become  astonishingly  versatile  in  the  West.  He  has 
tried  his  hand  at  almost  everything,  just  as  the  former  laborers  in  the 
camps  of  Michigan  and  Wisconsin  branched  into  whatever  big  wild 
untamed  hard  work  they  came  across." 


ABE,  the  big  blue  ox  constitut- 
ed  Paul  Bunyan's  assets  and 
liabilities.  History  disagrees  as  to 
when,  where  and  how  Paul  first 
acquired  this  bovine  locomotive  but 
his  subsequent  record  is  reliably 
established.  Babe  could  pull  any 
thing  that  had  two  ends  to  it. 

Babe   was   seven   axehandles 
wide  between  the  eyes  according  to 
some   authorities;    others   equally 
dependable  say  forty-two  axehand 
les  and  a  plug  of  tobacco.     Like  other  historical  contradictions  this 
comes  from  using  different  standards.  Seven  of  Paul's  axehandles 
were  equal  to  a  little  more  than  forty-two  of  the  ordinary  kind. 

When  cost  sheets  were  figured  on  Babe,  Johnny  Inkslinger 
found  that  upkeep  and  overhead  were  expensive  but  the  charges  for 
operation  and  depreciation  were  low  and  the  efficiency  was  very 
high.  How  else  could  Paul  have  hauled  logs  to  the  landing  a  whole 
section  (640  acres)  at  a  time?  He  also  used  Babe  to  pull  the  kinks 
out  of  the  crooked  logging  roads  and  it  was  on  a  job  of  this  kind  that 
Babe  pulled  a  chain  of  three-inch  links  out  into  a  straight  bar. 

They  could  never  keep  Babe  more  than  one  night  at  a  camp  for 
he  would  eat  in  one  day  all  the  feed  one  crew  could  tote  to  camp  in  a 
year.  For  a  snack  between  meals  he  would  eat  fifty  bales  of  hay, 
wire  and  all  and  six  men  with  picaroons  were  kept  busy  picking  the 
wire  out  of  his  teeth.  Babe  was  a  great  pet  and  very  docile  as  a  general 
thing  but  he  seemed  to  have  a  sense  of  humor  and  frequently  got  into 
mischief.  He  would  sneak  up  behind  a  drive  and  drink  all  the  water 
out  of  the  river,  leaving  the  logs  high  and  dry.  It  was  impossible  to 
build  an  ox-sling  big  enough  to  hoist  Babe  off  the  ground  for  shoeing, 
but  after  they  logged  off  Dakota  there  was  room  for  Babe  to  lie  down 
for  this  operation. 

Once  in  a  while  Babe  would  run  away  and  be  gone  all  day 
roaming  all  over  the  Northwestern  country.  His  tracks  were 
so  far  apart  that  it  was  impossible  to  follow  him  and  so  deep 
that  a  man  falling  into  one  could  only  be  hauled  out  with 
difficulty  and  a  long  rope.  Once  a  settler  and  his  wife  and  baby 
fell  into*  one  of  these  tracks  and  the  son  got  out  when  he  was  fifty- 
seven  years  old  and  reported  the  accident.  These  tracks,  today  form 
the  thousands  of  lakes  in  the  "Land  of  the  Sky-Blue  Water.". 


T)  ECAUSE  he  was  so  much  younger  than  Babe  and  was  brought 
•^  to  camp  when  a  small  calf,  Benny  was  always  called  the  Little 
Blue  Ox  although  he  was  quite  a  chunk  of  an  animal.  Benny  could 
not,  or  rather,  would  not  haul  as  much  as  Babe  nor  was  he 
tractable  but  he  could  eat  more. 


as 


Paul  got  Benny  for  nothing  from  a  farmer  near  Bangor,  Maine. 
There  was  not  enough  milk  for  the  little  fellow  so  he  had  to  be  weaned 

when  three  days  old  .  The  farmer  only 
had  forty  acres  of  hay  and  by  the  time 
Benny  was  a  week  old  he  had  to  dispose 
of  him  for  lack  of  food.  The  calf  was 
undernourished  and  only  weighed  two 
tons  when  Paul  got  him.  Paul  drove 
from  Bangor  out  to  his  headquarters 
camp  near  Devil's  Lake,  North  Dakota 
that  night  and  led  Benny  behind  the 
sleigh.  Western  air  agreed  with  the  little 
calf  and  every  time  Paul  looked  back  at 
him  he  was  two  feet  taller. 


When  they  arrived  at  camp  Benny 
was  given  a  good  feed  of  buffalo  milk 
and  flapjacks  and  put  into  a  barn  by 
Next  morning  the  barn  was  gone.    Later  it  was  discovered 

He  had  out- 


himself. 

on  Benny's  back  as  he  scampered  over  the  clearings. 

grown  his  barn  in  one  night. 

Benny  was  very  notional  and 
would  never  pull  a  load  unless  there 
was  snow  on  the  ground  so  after  the 
spring  thaws  they  had  to  white  wash 
the  logging  roads  to  fool  him. 

Gluttony  killed  Benny.  He  had 
a  mania  for  pancakes  and  one  cook 
crew  of  two  hundred  men  was  kept 
busy  making  cakes  for  him.  One 
night  he  pawed  and  bellowed  and 
threshed  his  tail  about  till  the  wind 
of  it  blew  down  what  pine  Paul  had 
left  standing  in  Dakota.  At  break 
fast  time  he  broke  loose,  tore  down 
the  cook  shanty  and  began  bolting 
pancakes.  In  his  greed  he  swallow 
ed  the  red-hot  stove.  Indigestion  set 


8 


in  and  nothing  could  save  him.  What  disposition  was  made  of  his 
body  is  a  matter  of  dispute.  One  oldtimer  claims  that  the  outfit  he 
works  for  bought  a  hind  quarter  of  the  carcass  in  1857  and  made 
corned  beef  of  it.  He  thinks  they  have  several  carloads  of  it  left. 

Another  authority  states  that  the  body  of  Benny  was  dragged  to 
a  safe  distance  from  the  North  Dakota  camp  and  buried.  When 
the  earth  was  shoveled  back  it  made  a  mound  that  formed  the  Black 
Hills  in  South  Dakota. 


THE  custodian  and  chape 
ron  of  Babe  the  Big  Blue 
Ox  was  Brimstone  Bill.  He 
knew  all  the  tricks  of  that 
frisky  giant  before  they  hap 
pened. 

"I  know  oxen"  the  old 
bullwhacker  used  to  say,  "I've 
worked  'em  and  fed  'em  and 
doctored  'em  ever  since  the  ox 
was  invented.  And  Babe,  I 
know  that  pernicious  old  rep- 
tyle  same  as  if  I'd  abeen  through  him  with  a  lantern." 

Bill  compiled  "The  Skinner's  Dictionary",  a  hand  book  for 
teamsters,  and  most  of  the  terms  used  in  directing  draft  animals 
(except  mules)  originated  with  him.  His  early  religious  training 
accounts  for  the  fact  that  the  technical  language  of  the  teamster 
contains  so  many  names  of  places  and  people  spoken  of  in  the  Bible. 

The  buckskin  harness  used  on  Babe  and  Benny  when  the  weath 
er  was  rainy  was  made  by  Brimstone  Bill.  When  this  harness  got  wet 
it  would  stretch  so  much  that  the  oxen  could  travel  clear  to  the  land 
ing  and  the  load  would  not  move  from  the  skidway  in  the  woods. 
Brimstone  would  fasten  the  harness  with  an  anchor  Big  Ole  made  for 
him  and  when  the  sun  came  out  and  the  harness  shrunk  the  load 
would  be  pulled  to  the  landing  while  Bill  and  the  oxen  were  busy  at 
some  other  job. 

The  winter  of  the  Blue  Snow,  the  Pacific  Ocean  froze  over  and 
Bill  kept  the  oxen  busy  hauling  regular  white  snow  over  from  China. 
M.  H.  Keenan  can  testify  to  the  truth  of  this  as  he  worked  for  Paul 
on  the  Big  Onion  that  winter.  It  must  have  been  about  this  time  that 
Bill  made  the  first  ox  yokes  out  of  cranberry  wood. 


T7EEDING  Paul  Bunyan's  crews  was  a  complicated  job.  At  no  two 
•*•  camps  were  conditions  the  same.  The  winter  he  logged  off  North 
Dakota  he  had  300  cooks  making  pancakes  for  the  Seven  Axemen 
and  the  little  Chore-boy.  At  headquarters  on  the  Big  Onion  he  had 
one  cook  and  462  cookees  feeding  a  crew  so  big  that  Paul  himself 
never  knew  within  several  hundred  either  way,  how  many  men  he  had. 

At  Big  Onion  camp  there  was  a  lot  of  mechanical  equipment  and 
the  trouble  was  a  man  who  could  handle  the  machinery  cooked 
just  like  a  machinist  too.  One  cook  got  lost  between  the  flour  bin  and 
the  root  cellar  and  nearly  starved  to  death  before  he  was  found. 

Cooks  came  and  went.  Some  were  good  and  others  just  able  to 
get  by.  Paul  never  kept  a  poor  one,  very  long.  There  was  one  jigger 
who  seemed  to  have  learned  to  do  nothing  but  boil.  He  made  soup 
out  of  everything  and  did  most  of  his  work  with  a  dipper.  When  the 
big  tote-sled  broke  through  the  ice  on  Bull  Frog  Lake  with  a  load  of 
split  peas,  he  served  warmed  up  lake  water  till  the  crew  struck.  His 
idea  of  a  lunch  box  was  a  jug  or  a  rope  to  freeze  soup  onto  like  a 
candle.  Some  cooks  used  too  much  grease.  It  was  said  of  one  of  these 
that  he  had  to  wear  calked  shoes  to  keep  from  sliding  out  of  the  cook- 
shanty  and  rub  sand  on  his  hands  when  he  picked  anything  up. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  camp  cooks,  the  Baking  Powder  Bums  and 
the  Sourdough  Stiffs.  Sourdough  Sam  belonged  to  the  latter  school. 

10 


He  made  everything  but  coffee  out  of  Sourdough.  He  had  only  one 
arm  and  one  leg,  the  other  members  having  been  lost  when  his  sour 
dough  barrel  blew  up.  Sam  officiated  at  Tadpole  River  headquart 
ers,  the  winter  Shot  Gunderson  took  charge. 

After  all  others  had  failed  at  Big  Onion  camp,  Paul  hired  his 
cousin  Big  Joe  who  came  from  three  weeks  below  Quebec.  This 
boy  sure  put  a  mean  scald  on  the  chuck.  He  was  the  only  man  who 
could  make  pancakes  fast  enough  to  feed  the  crew.  He  had  Big  Ole, 
the  blacksmith  make  him  a  griddle  that  was  so  big  you  couldn't  see 
across  it  when  the  steam  was  thick.  The  batter,  stirred  in  drums  like 
concrete  mixers  was  poured  on  with  cranes  and  spouts.  The  griddle 
was  greased  by  colored  boys  who  skated  over  the  surface  with  hams 
tied  to  their  feet.  They  had  to  have  colored  boys  to  stand  the  heat. 

At  this  camp  the  flunkeys  wore  roller  skates  and  an  idea  of  the 
size  of  the  tables  is  gained  from  the  fact  that  they  distributed  the 
pepper  with  four-horse  teams. 

Sending  out  lunch  and  timing  the  meals  was  rendered  difficult 
by  the  size  of  the  works  which  required  three  crews — one  going  to 
work,  one  on  the  job  and  one  coming  back.  Joe  had  to  start  the  bull- 
cook  out  with  the  lunch  sled  two  weeks  ahead  of  dinner  time.  To  call 
the  men  who  came  in  at  noon  was  another  problem.  Big  Ole  made  a 
dinner  horn  so  big  that  no  one  could  blow  it  but  Big  Joe  or  Paul  him 
self.  The  first  time  Joe  blew  it  he  blew  down  ten  acres  of  pine.  The 
Red  River  people  wouldn't  stand  for  that  so  the  next  time  he  blew 
straight  up  but  this  caused  severe  cyclones  and  storms  at  sea  so  Paul 
had  to  junk  the  horn  and  ship  it 
East  where  later  it  was  made  in 
to  a  tin  roof  for  a  big  Union  Depot. 

When  Big  Joe  came  to  West- 
wood  with  Paul,  he  started  some 
thing.  About  that  time  you  may  have 
read  in  the  papers  about  a  volcanic 
eruption  at  Mt.  Lassen,  heretofore 
extinct  for  many  years.  That  was 
where  Big  Joe  dug  his  bean-hole  and 
when  the  steam  worked  out  of  the 
bean  kettle  and  up  through  the 
ground,  everyone  thought  the  old 
hill  had  turned  volcano.  Every  time 
Joe  drops  a  biscuit  they  talk  of 
earthquakes. 


MT.   LASSEN,    CALIFORNIA 
The  only  active  Volcano  in  America 
Where    Big    Joe    cooks    the    beans. 


It  was  always  thought  that  the  quality  of  the  food  at  Paul's  Camps 
had  a  lot  to  do  with  the  strength  and  endurance  of  the  men.  No 
doubt  it  did,  but  they  were  a  husky  lot  to  start  with.  As  the  feller 
said  about  fish  for  a  brain  food,  "It  won't  do  you  no  good  unless  there 
is  a  germ  there  to  start  with." 

There  must  have  been  something  to  the  food  theory  for  the 
chipmunks  that  ate  the  prune  pits  got  so  big  they  killed  all  the  wolves 
and  years  later  the  settlers  shot  them  for  tigers. 

A  visitor  at  one  of  Paul's  camps  was  astonished  to  see  a  crew 
of  men  unloading  four-horse  logging  sleds  at  the  cook  shanty.  They 
appeared  to  be  rolling  logs  into  a  trap  door  from  which  poured 
clouds  of  steam. 

"That's  a  heck  of  a  place  to  land  logs"  he  remarked. 

"Them  aint  logs"  grinned  a  bull-cook  "them's  sausages  for  the 
teamsters'  breakfast." 

At  Paul's  camp  up  where  the  little  Gimlet  empties  into  the  Big 
Auger,  newcomers  used  to  kick  because  they  were  never  served  beans. 
The  bosses  and  the  men  could  never  be  interested  in  beans.  E.  E. 
Terrill  tells  us  the  reason : 

Once  when  the  cook  quit  they  had  to  detail  a  substitute  to  the  job 
temporarily.  There  was  one  man  who  was  no  good  anywhere.  He 

12 


THREE   MORE  MEf/ FOR 
OINNER.»POTANOTMe 

PAIL  of  WATER,   IK 


had  failed  at  every  job.  Chris  Crosshaul,  the 
foreman,  acting  on  the  theory  that  every  man 
is  good  somewhere,  figured  that  this  guy  must 
be  a  cook,  for  it  was  the  only  job  he  had  not 
tried.  So  he  was  put  to  work  and  the  first 
thing  he  tackled  was  beans.  He  filled  up  a 
big  kettle  with  beans  and  added  some  water. 
When  the  heat  took  hold  the  beans  swelled  up 
till  they  lifted  off  the  roof  and  bulged  out  the 
walls.  There  was  no  way  to  get  into  the  place 
to  cook  anything  else,  so  the  whole  crew  turned 
in  to  eat  up  the  half  cooked  beans.  By  keep 
ing  at  it  steady  they  cleaned  them  up  in  a  week 
and  rescued  the  would-be-cook.  After  that  no 
one  seemed  to  care  much  for  beans. 

It  used  to  be  a  big  job  to  haul  prune  pits 
and  coffee  grounds  away  from  Paul's  camps. 
It  required  a  big  crew  of  men  and  either  Babe 
or  Benny  to  do  the  hauling.  Finally  Paul 
decided  it  was  cheaper  to  build  new  camps 
and  move  every  month. 

The  winter  Paul  logged  off  North  Dakota  with  the  Seven  Axe 
men,  the  Little  Chore  Boy  and  the  300  cooks,  he  worked  the  cooks  in 
three  shifts — one  for  each  meal.  The  Seven  Axemen  were  hearty 
eaters;  a  portion  of  bacon  was  one  side  of  a  1600-pound  pig.  Paul 
shipped  a  stern-wheel  steamboat  up  Red  River  and  they  put  it  in 
the  soup  kettle  to  stir  the  soup! 

Like  other  artists,  cooks  are  temperamental  and  some  of  them 
are  full  of  cussedness  but  the  only  ones  who  could  sass  Paul  Bunyan 
and  get  away  with  it  were  the  stars  like  Big  Joe  and  Sourdough  Sam. 

The  lunch  sled, — most  popular  institu 
tion  in  the  lumber  industry!  It's  arrival 
at  the  noon  rendezvous  has  been  hailed  with 
joy  by  hungry  men  on  every  logging  job 
since  Paul  invented  it.  What  if  the  warm 
food  freezes  on  your  tin  plate,  the  keen  cold 
air  has  sharpened  your  appetite  to  enjoy  it. 
The  crew  that  toted  lunch  for  Paul  Bunyan 
had  so  far  to  travel  and  so  many  to  feed 
they  hauled  a  complete  kitchen  on  the  lunch 
sled,  cooks  and  all. 


13 


VER  thirty  years  ago  The  Red  River 
Lumber  Company,  foreseeing  the  end 
of  their  White  Pine  which  was  reached  in 
1915,  set  out  to  find  the  pine  that  would 
supply  a  trade  that  demands  the  qualities 
found  in  White  Pine.  All  the  forests  of 
North  America  were  examined  and  exhaust 
ively  studied  and  the  selection  was  Sugar 
Pine  and  California  White  Pine, — "the 
largest  pines  that  ever  grew"  and  produc 
tion  started  at  Westwood  in  1914. 

SUGAR  PINE,— "cork  pine's  big 
brother,"  is  botanically  a  White  Pine  with 
all  the  family  virtues  that  have  made  White 
Pine  the  standard  from  the  days  of  the  Pil 
grim  Fathers  to  the  period  of  "cork"  White 
Pine  in  the  Lake  States.  It  is  light,  soft, 
even-textured,  easy-to-work,  durable  and 
will  not  warp  or  check. 

CALIFORNIA  WHITE  PINE  ranks 
second  only  to  Sugar  Pine  in  size  and  is 
close  to  it  in  White  Pine  qualities.  Botani 
cally  a  Yellow  Pine,  its  texture  has  been  so 
changed  by  climate  and  altitude  that  it  in 
no  way  resembles  the  Yellow  Pines  and  is 
so  much  like  White  Pine  that  its  trade  name 
is  necessary  to  prevent  confusion  on  the 
part  of  the  consumer. 


WHITE  FIR  is  light,  straight  grained 
and  easily  worked.  A  smaller  percentage  of  upper  grades  than  the 
big  pines,  but  with  knots  so  small  that  the  commons  offer  exceptional 
values  and  advantages.  It  is  used  for  concrete  forms,  sheathing, 
studding  and  for  dairy  containers  and  packages  that  must  be  odor 
less  and  tasteless.  It  also  makes  a  handsome  interior  finish. 

INCENSE  CEDAR  is  used  chiefly  for  pencils  and  chests — a 
soft,  straight-grained  red  cedar. 

The  Red  River  people  strive  for  a  quality  of  manufacture 
worthy  of  such  magnificent  trees.  The  Westwood  plant,  electrically 
operated  throughout,  is  a  new  departure  in  its  field,  with  a  capacity 
of  200  million  feet  a  year.  Planned  by  our  own  engineers,  much 
of  the  machinery  and  equipment  is  of  our  own  design  and  new  stand 
ards  of  efficiency,  economy  and  precision  of  cutting  have  been  set. 


14 


Modern  dry-kilns  handle  a 
large  part  of  the  output  and 
yield  perfectly  seasoned 
lumber,  free  from  dryingde- 
fects,  in  a  few  days  instead 
of  the  months  required  for 
air  drying. 

The  plant  operates  the 
year  'round,  logging,  saw 
ing,  manufacturing  and  ship 
ping.  Handicaps  of  a  severe 
winter  climate  are  overcome 
and  frozen  logs  are  thawed 
in  a  steam-heated  pond. 
Continuous  operation  gives 
steady  employment  to  skill 
ed  and  experienced  men  and 
a  rapid  replacement  of 
stocks  that  makes  Westwood 
a  dependable  source  of  supply  for  the  trade. 

The  large  Red  River  factories  at  Westwood  are  equipped  to 
supply  every  known  need  of  the  trade  and  made-to-order  specialties 
are  quickly  turned  out.  The  most  modern  machinery  is  used  for  cut 
ting,  finishing,  glueing  and  other  operations. 

Our  moldings,  sash  and  doors  and  similar  products  are  superior 
in  their  clean-cut  workmanship  as  well  as  the  texture  of  the  wood. 
Box  shocks,  sash  and  door  cuttings,  boards  for  winding  fine  textiles 
or  making  organ  pipes,  piano  keys  and  key-beds,  curtain  poles 
and  shade  rollers  are  some  of  our  products.  Cutting  out  the  knots 
and  waste  at  the  source  of  supply  affords  economies  that  are  profit 
able  to  all  wood  consuming  industries. 


One  of  the  Westwood  Crane  Crews  Piling 
Lumber  for  Air-drying.  One  board  at  a  Time 
is  Too  Slow.  The  Record  for  One  Crane — 10 
Hours  is  678,900  Feet,  Board  Measure. 


One  of  the  Edgers,  Westwood  Mill,  California. 

15 


\X7HEN  Paul  invented  logging 
he  had  to  invent  all  the  tools 
and  figure  out  all  his  own  methods. 
There  were  no  precedents.  At  the 
start  his  outfit  consisted  of  Babe 
and  his  big  axe. 

No  two  logging  jobs  can  be 
handled  exactly  the  same  way  so 
Paul  adapted  his  operations  to 
local  conditions.  In  the  mountains 
he  used  Babe  to  pull  the  kinks  out 
of  the  crooked  logging  roads;  on 
the  Big  Onion  he  began  the  system 
of  hauling  a  section  of  land  at  a 
time  to  the  landings  and  in  North 
Dakota  he  used  the  Seven  Axemen. 

At  that  time  marking  logs  was 
not  thought  of,  Paul  had  no  need 
for  identification  when  there  were 
no  logs  but  his  own.  About  the 
time  he  started  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
drive  others  had  come  into  the  in 
dustry  and  although  their  combined  cut  was  insignificant  compared 
to  Paul's,  there  was  danger  of  confusion,  and  Paul  had  most  to  lose. 

At  first  Paul  marked  his  logs  by  pinching  a  piece  out  of  each 
log.  When  his  cut  grew  so  large  that  the  marking  had  to  be  detailed 
to  the  crews,  the  "scalp"  on  each  log  was  put  on  with  an  axe,  for 
even  in  those  days  not  every  man  could  nip  out  the  chunk  with  his 
fingers. 

The  Grindstone  was  invented  by  Paul  the  winter  he  logged  off 
North  Dakota.  Before  that  Paul's  axemen  had  to  sharpen  their  axes 
by  rolling  rocks  down  hill  and  running  along  side  of  them.  When 
they  got  to  "Big  Dick,"  as  the  lumberjacks  called  Dakota,  hills  and 
rocks  were  so  hard  to  find  that  Paul  rigged  up  the  revolving  rock. 

This  was  much  appreciated  by  the  Seven  Axemen  as  it  enabled 
them  to  grind  an  axe  in  a  week,  but  the  grindstone  was  not  much  of  a  hit 
with  the  Little  Chore  Boy  whose  job  it  was  to  turn  it.  The  first  stone 
was  so  big  that  working  at  full  speed,  every  time  it  turned  around 
once  it  was  payday. 

The  Little  Chore  Boy  led  a  strenuous  life.  He  was  only  a  kid 
and  like  all  youngsters  putting  in  their  first  winter  in  the  woods,  he 


16 


was  put  over  the  jumps  by  the  old- 
timers.  His  regular  work  was  heavy 
enough,  splitting  all  the  wood  for 
the  camp,  carrying  water  and  pack 
ing  lunch  to  the  men,  but  his  hazers 
sent  him  on  all  kinds  of  wild  goose 
errands  to  all  parts  of  the  works, 
looking  for  a  "left-handed  peavy" 
or  a  "bundle  of  cross-hauls." 

He  had  to  take  a  lot  of  good 
natured  roughneck  wit  about  his 
size  for  he  only  weighed  800 
pounds  and  a  couple  of  surcingles 
made  a  belt  for  him.  What  he 
lacked  in  size  he  made  up  in  grit 
and  the  men  secretly  respected  his  gameness.  They  said  he  might 
make  a  pretty  good  man  if  he  ever  got  any  growth,  and  considered 
it  a  necessary  education  to  give  him  a  lot  of  extra  chores. 

Often  in  the  evening,  after  his  day's  work  and  long  hours  put 
in  turning  the  grindstone  and  keeping  up  fires  in  the  c.amp  stoves — 
that  required  four  cords  of  wood  apiece  to  kindle  a  fire,  he  could  be 
found  with  one  of  Big  Ole's  small  600-pound  anvils  in  his  lap  peg 
ging  up  shoes  with  railroad  spikes. 

It  was  a  long  time  before  they 
solved  the  problem  of  turning  log 
ging  sleda  around  in  the  road. 
When  a  sled  returned  from  the 
landing  and  put  on  a  load  they  had 
to  wait  until  Paul  came  along  to 
pick  up  the  four  horses  and  the 
load  and  head  them  the  other  way. 
Judson  M.  Goss  says  he  worked  for 
Paul  the  winter  he  invented  the 
round  turn. 

All  of  Paul's  inventions  were 
successful  except  when  he  decided 
to  run  three  ten-hour  shifts  a  day 
and  installed  the  Aurora  Borealis. 
After  a  number  of  trials  the  plan 
was  abandoned  because  the  lights 
were  not  dependable. 


17 


f*HE  Seven  Axemen  of  the  Red  River"  they  were  called  because 

•*•    they  had  a  camp  on  Red  River  with  the  three-hundred  cooks  and 

the  Little  Chore  Boy.     The  whole  State  was  cut  over  from  the  one 

camp  and  the  husky  seven  chopped  from  dark  to  dark  and  walked 

to  and  from  work. 

Their  axes  were  so  big  it  took  a  week  to  grind  one  of  them. 
Each  man  had  three  axes  and  two  helpers  to  carry  the  spare  axes 
to  the  river  when  they  got  red  hot  from  chopping.  Even  in  those 
days  they  had  to  watch  out  for  forest  fires.  The  axes  were  hung  on 
long  rope  handles.  Each  axeman  would  march  through  the  timber 
whirling  his  axe  around  him  till  the  hum  of  it  sounded  like  one  of 
Paul's  for-and-aft-  mosquitoes,  and  at  every  step  a  quarter-section 
of  timber  was  cut. 

The  height,  weight  and  chest  measurement  of  the  Seven  Axemen 
are  not  known.  Authorities  differ.  History  agrees  that  they  kept 
a  cord  of  four-foot  wood  on  the  table  for  toothpicks.  After  supper 
they  would  sit  on  the  deacon  seat  in  the  bunk  shanty  and  sing  "Shanty 
Boy"  and  "Bung  Yer  Eye"  till  the  folks  in  the  settlements  down  on 
the  Atlantic  would  think  another  nor'wester  was  blowing  up. 

Some  say  the  Seven  Axemen  were  Bay  Chaleur  men;  others 
declare  they  were  all  cousins  and  came  from  down  Machias  way. 
Where  they  came  from  or  where  they  went  to  blow  their  stake  after 


18 


leaving  Paul's  camp  no  one  knows  but  they  are  remembered  as  husky 
lads  and  good  fellows  around  camp. 

After  the  Seven  Axemen  had  gone  down  the  tote  road,  never  to 
return,  Paul  Bunyan  was  at  a  loss  to  find  a  method  of  cutting  down 
trees  that  would  give  him  anything  like  the  output  he  had  been  get 
ting.  Many  trials  and  experiments  followed  and  then  Paul  invented 
the  two-man  saw. 

The  first  saw  was  made  from  a  strip  trimmed  off  in  making 
Big  Joe's  dinner  horn  and  was  long  enough  to  reach  across  a  quarter 
section,  for  Paul  could  never  think  in  smaller  units.  This  saw 
worked  all  right  in  a  level  country,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  all  the 
trees  fell  back  on  the  saw,  but  in  rough  country  only  the  trees  on  the 
hill  tops  were  cut.  Trees  in  the  valleys  were  cut  off  in  the  tops  and 
in  the  pot  holes  the  saw  passed  over  the  trees  altogether. 

It  took  a  good  man  to  pull  this  saw  in  heavy  timber  when  Paul 
was  working  on  the  other  end.  Paul  used  to  say  to  his  fellow  sawyer, 
"I  don't  care  if  you  ride  the  saw,  but  please  don't  drag  your  feet." 
A  couple  of  cousins  of  Big  Ole's  were  given  the  job  and  did  so  well 
that  ever  afterward  in  the  Lake  States  the  saw  crews  have  generally 
been  Scandinavians. 

It  was  after  this  that  Paul  had  Big  Ole  make  the  "Down-Cutter." 
This  was  a  rig  like  a  mowing  machine.  They  drove  around  eight 
townships  and  cut  a  swath  500  feet  wide. 


19 


Winter  of  the  Deep  Snow 
everything  was  buried.  Paul 
had  to  dig  down  to  find  the  tops 
of  the  tallest  White  Pines.  He  had 
the  snow  dug  away  around  them 
and  lowered  his  sawyers  down  to 
the  base  of  the  trees.  When  the 
tree  was  cut  off  he  hauled  it  to  the 
surface  with  a  long  parbuckle 
chain  to  which  Babe,  mounted  on 
snowshoes,  was  hitched.  It  was 
impossible  to  get  enough  stove 
pipe  to  reach  to  the  top  of  the 
snow,  so  Paul  had  Big  Ole  make 
stovepipe  by  boring  out  logs  with 
a  long  six-inch  auger. 

The  year  of  the  Two  Winters 
they  had  winter  all  summer  and  then  in  the  fall  it  turned  colder. 
One  day  Big  Joe  set  the  boiling  coffeepot  on  the  stove  and  it  froze 
so  quick  that  the  ice  was  hot.  That  was  right  after  Paul  had  built 
the  Great  Lakes  and  that  winter  they  froze  clear  to  the  bottom.  They 
never  would  have  thawed  out  if  Paul  had  not  chopped  out  the  ice  and 
hauled  it  out  on  shore  for  the  sun  to  melt.  He  finally  got  all  the 
ice  thawed  but  he  had  to  put  in  all  new  fish. 

The  next  spring  was  the  year  the  rain  came  up  from  China. 
It  rained  so  hard  and  so  long  that  the  grass  was  all  washed  out 
by  the  roots  and  Paul  had  a  great  time  feeding  his  cattle.  Babe 

had  to  learn  to  eat  pancakes 
like  Benny.  That  was  the 
time  Paul  used  the  straw  hats 
for  an  emergency  ration. 

When  Paul's  drive  came 
down,  folks  in  the  settlements 
were  astonished  to  see  all  the 
river-pigs  wearing  huge  straw 
hats.  The  reason  for  this  was 
soon  apparent.  When  the  fod 
der  ran  out  every  man  was 
politely  requested  to  toss  his 
hat  into  the  ring.  Hundreds 
of  straw  hats  were  used  to 
make  a  lunch  for  Babe. 


20 


'  I  ^  ALK  about  a  job  for  Paul  Bunyan!  In  1913  the  site  of  Westwood 
-*-  was  primeval  forest,  sixty  mountainous  miles  from  the  near 
est  railroad.  Tractors,  trucks  and  hundreds  of  horses  freighted  in 
materials  before  the  railroad  was  extended  and  when  the  future 
residents  arrived  the  town  was  complete  to  the  last  detail. 

Not  a  shack  in  the  town.  Modern  houses,  sanitary  sewers, 
waterworks,  electricity,  grade  and  high  schools,  hospital,  church, 
clubs,  up-to-date  department  store,  cafeteria,  dairy,  packing  house, 
and  cold  storage,  theatre,  soda  fountains,  garage  and  ball  park — the 
5,400  citizens  of  Westwood  enjoy  comfortable  homes,  good  schools, 
year  'round  employment  at  good  wages,  low  living  costs,  and  form 
one  of  the  most-up-and-coming  communities  in  the  progressive  State 
of  California. 


T  UCY,  Paul  Bunyan's  cow  was  not,  so  far  as  we  can  learn,  related 
•*— '  in  any  way  to  either  Babe  or  Benny.  Statements  that  she  was 
their  mother  are  wkhout  basis  in  fact.  The  two  oxen  had  been  in 
Paul's  possession  for  a  long  time  before  Lucy  arrived  on  the  scene. 

No  reliable  data  can  be  found  as  to  the  pedigree  of  this  re 
markable  dairy  animal.  There  are  no  official  records  of  her  butter- 
fat  production  nor  is  it  known  where  or  how  Paul  got  her. 

Paul  always  said  that  Lucy  was  part  Jersey  and  part  wolf.  May 
be  so.  Her  actions  and  methods  of  living  seemed  to  justify  the  alle 
gation  of  wolf  ancestry,  for  she  had  an  insatiable  appetite  and  a 
roving  disposition.  Lucy  ate  everything  in  sight  and  could  never  be 
fed  at  the  same  camp  with  Babe  or  Benny.  In  fact,  they  quit  trying 
to  feed  her  at  all  but  let  her  forage  her  own  living.  The  Winter  of 
the  Deep  Snow,  when  even  the  tallest  White  Pines  were  buried, 
Brimstone  Bill  outfitted  Lucy  with  a  set  of  Babe's  old  snowshoes  and 
a  pair  of  green  goggles  and  turned  her  out  to  graze  on  the  snowdrifts. 
At  first  she  had  some  trouble  with  the  new  foot  gear  but  once  she 
learned  to  run  them  and  shift  gears  without  wrecking  herself,  she 
answered  the  call  of  the  limitless  snow  fields  and  ran  away  all  over 

North    America    until    Paul 


decorated 
borrowed 
church. 


her   with 
from     a 


a    bell 
buried 


In  spite  of  short  rations 
she  gave  enough  milk  to 
keep  six  men  busy  skimming 
the  cream.  If  she  had  been 
kept  in  a  barn  and  fed  reg 
ularly  she  might  have  made 
a  milking  record.  When  she 
fed  on  the  evergreen  trees 
and  her  milk  got  so  strong  of 
White  Pine  and  Balsam  that 
the  men  used  it  for  cough 
medicine  and  linament,  they 
quit  serving  the  milk  on  the 
table  and  made  butter  out 
of  it.  By  using  this  butter 
to  grease  the  logging  roads 
when  the  snow  and  ice  thaw 
ed  off,  Paul  was  able  to  run 
his  logging  sleds  all  summer. 


22 


family  life  of  Paul 
Bunyan,  from  all  ac 
counts,  has  been  very  happy. 
A  charming  glimpse  of  Mrs.  j 
Bunyan  is  given  by  Mr.  E.  S. 
Shepard  of  Rhinelander,  Wis., 
who  tells  of  working  in 
Paul's  camp  on  Round  River 
in  '62,  the  Winter  of  the  Black 
Snow.  Paul  put  him  wheel 
ing  prune  pits  away  from  the 
cook  camp.  After  he  had  work 
ed  at  this  job  for  three  months 
Paul  had  him  haul  them  all 
back  again  as  Mrs.  Bunyan, 
who  was  cooking  at  the  camp 
wanted  to  use  them  to  make 
the  hot  fires  necessary  to  cook 
her  famous  soft  nosed  pan 
cakes. 

Mrs  Bunyan,  at  this  time 
used  to  call  the  men  to  dinner 
by  blowing  into  a  woodpecker 
hole  in  an  old  hollow  stub  that 
stood  near  the  door.  In  this 
stub  there  was  a  nest  of  owls 
that  had  one  short  wing  and 
flew  in  circles.  When  Mr. 
Shepard  made  a  sketch  of  Paul, 
Mrs.  Bunyan,  with  wifely  soli 
citude  forhis  appearance,  part 
ed  Paul's  hair  with  a  handaxe  and  combed  it  with  an  old  crosscut  saw. 

From  other  sources  we  have  fragmentary  glimpses  of  Jean, 
Paul's  youngest  son,  When  Jean  was  three  weeks  old  he  jumped 
from  his  cradle  one  night  and  siezing  an  axe,  chopped  the  four  posts 
out  from  under  his  father's  bed.  The  incident  greatly  tickled 
Paul,  who  used  to  brag  about  it  to  any  one  who  would  listen  to  him. 
"The  boy  is  going  to  be  a  great  logger  some  day,"  he  would  declare 
with  fatherly  pride. 

The  last  we  heard  of  Jean  he  was  working  for  a  lumber  outfit 
in  the  South,  lifting  logging  trains  past  one  another  on  a  single 
track  railroad. 


23 


IT  is  no  picnic  to  tackle  the  wilderness  and  turn  the  very  forest  it 
self  into  a  commercial  commodity  delivered  at  the  market.     A 
logger  needs  plenty  of  brains  and  back  bone. 

Paul  Bunyan  had  his  setbacks 
the  same  as  every  logger  only  his  were 
worse.  Being  a  pioneer  he  had  to  in 
vent  all  his  stuff  as  he  went  along. 
Many  a  time  his  plans  were  upset  by 
the  mistakes  of  some  swivel-headed 
strawboss  or  incompetent  foreman. 
The  winter  of  the  blue  snow,  Shot  Gun- 
derson  had  charge  in  the  Big  Tadpole 
River  country.  He  landed  all  of  his 
logs  in  a  lake  and  in  the  spring  when 
ready  to  drive  he  boomed  the  logs 
three  times  around  the  lake  before  he 
discovered  there  was  no  outlet  to  it. 
High  hills  surrounded  the  lake  and  the 
drivable  stream  was  ten  miles  away. 
Apparently  the  logs  were  a  total  loss. 

Then  Paul  came  on  the  job  himself  and  got  busy.  Calling  in 
Sourdough  Sam,  the  cook  who  made  everthing  but  coffee  out  of 
sourdough,  he  ordered  him  to  mix 
enough  sourdough  to  fill  the  big 
watertank.  Hitching  Babe  to  the 
tank,  he  hauled  it  over  and  dumped 
it  into  the  lake.  When  it  "riz",  as 
Sam  said,  a  mighty  lava-like  stream 
poured  forth  and  carried  the  logs 
over  the  hills  to  the  river.  There  is 
a  landlocked  lake  in  Northern  Min 
nesota  that  is  called  "Sourdough 
Lake"  to  this  day. 

Chris  Crosshaul  was  a  careless 
cuss.  He  took  a  big  drive  down  the 
Mississippi  for  Paul  and  when  the 
logs  were  delivered  in  the  New  Or 
leans  boom  it  was  found  that  he  had 
driven  the  wrong  logs.  The  owners 
looked  at  the  barkmarks  and  refus 
ed  to  accept  them.  It  was  up  to  Paul 
to  drive  them  back  upstream. 


24 


No  one  but  Paul  Bunyan  would  ever  tackle  a  job  like  that.  To 
drive  logs  upstream  is  impossible,  but  if  you  think  a  little  thing  like 
an  impossibility  could  stop  him,  you  don't  know  Paul  Bunyan.  He 
simply  fed  Babe  a  good  big  salt  ration  and  drove  him  to  the  upper 
Mississippi  to  drink.  Babe  drank  the  river  dry  and  sucked  all  the 
water  upstream.  The  logs  came  up  river  faster  than  they  went  down. 


D  IG  Ole  was  the  Blacksmith  at 
•*^  Paul's  headquarters  camp  on 
the  Big  Onion.  Ole  had  a  cranky  dis 
position  but  he  was  a  skilled  work 
man.  No  job  in  iron  or  steel  was 
too  big  or  too  difficult  for  him.  One 
of  the  cooks  used  to  make  dough 
nuts  and  have  Ole  punch  the  holes. 
He  made  the  griddle  on  which  Big 
Joe  cast  his  pancakes  and  the  din 
ner  horn  that  blew  down  ten  acres 
of  pine.  Ole  was  the  only  man  who 
could  shoe  Babe  or  Benny.  Every 
time  he  made  a  set  of  shoes  for 
Babe  they  had  to  open  up  another 
Minnesota  iron  mine.  Ole  once 
carried  a  pair  of  these  shoes  a  mile 
and  sunk  knee  deep  into  solid  rock 
at  every  step.  Babe  cast  a  shoe 

while  making  a  hard  pull  one  day,  and  it  was  hurled  for  a  mile  and 
tore  down  forty  acres  of  pine  and  injured  eight  Swedes  that  were 
swamping  out  skidways.  Ole  was  also  a  mechanic  and  built  the 
Downcutter,  a  rig  like  a  mowing  machine  that  cut  down  a  swath 
of  trees  500  feet  wide. 


TN  the  early  days,  whenever  Paul  Bunyan  was  broke  between  log- 
•*•  ging  seasons,  he  travelled  around  like  other  lumberjacks  doing  any 
kind  of  pioneering  work  he  could  find.  He  showed  up  in  Washing 
ton  about  the  time  The  Puget  Construction  Co.  was  building  Puget 
Sound  and  Billy  Puget  was  making  records  moving  dirt  with  droves 
of  dirt  throwing  badgers.  Paul  and  Billy  got  into  an  argument  over 
who  had  shovelled  the  most.  Paul  got  mad  and  said  he'd  show  Billy 
Puget  and  started  to  throw  the  dirt  back  again.  Before  Billy  stop 
ped  him  he  had  piled  up  the  San  Juan  Islands. 


25 


WHEN  a  man  gets  the 
reputation  in  the 
woods  of  being  a  "good 
man"  it  refers  only  to  phy 
sical  prowess.  Frequently 
he  is  challenged  to  fight 
by  "good  men"  from  other 
communities. 

There  was  Pete  Mu- 
f  raw.  "You  know  Joe  Mu- 
fraw?"  "Oui,  two  Joe  Mu- 
fraw,  one  named  Pete." 
That's  the  fellow.  After 
Pete  had  licked  everybody 
between  Quebec  and  Bay 
Chaleur  he  started  to  look 
for  Paul  Bunyan.  He 
bragged  all  over  the  coun 
try  that  he  had  worn  out  six 
pair  of  shoe-pacs  looking 
for  Paul.  Finally  he  met  up  with  him. 

Paul  was  plowing  with  two  yoke  of  steers  and  Pete  Mufraw 
stopped  at  the  brush-fence  to  watch  the  plow  cut  its  way  right 
through  rocks  and  stumps.  When  they  reached  the  end  of  the  fur 
row  Paul  picked  up  the  plow  and  the  oxen  with  one  arm  and  turned 
them  around.  Pete  took  one  look  and  then  wandered  off  down  the 
trail  muttering,  "Hox  an'  hall!  She's  lift  box  an'  hall." 

T3AUL  Bunyan  started  travelling  before  the  steam  cars  were  in- 
•^  vented.  He  developed  his  own  means  of  transportation  and  the 
railroads  have  never  been  able  to  catch  up.  Time  is  so  valuable  to 
Paul  he  has  no  time  to  fool  around  at  sixty  miles  an  hour. 

In  the  early  days  he  rode  on  the  back  of  Babe,  the  Big  Blue  Ox. 
This  had  it's  difficulties  because  he  had  to  use  a  telescope  to  keep 
Babe's  hind  legs  in  view  and  the  hooves  of  the  ox  created  such  havoc 
that  after  the  settlements  came  into  different  parts  of  the  country 
there  were  heavy  damage  claims  to  settle  every  trip. 

Snowshoes  were  useful  in  winter  but  one  trip  on  the  webs  cured 
Paul  of  depending  upon  them  for  transcontinental  hikes.  He  started 
from  Minnesota  for  Westwood  one  Spring  morning.  There  was  still 
snow  in  the  woods  so  Paul  wore  his  snowshoes.  He  soon  ran  out  of 
the  snow  belt  but  kept  right  on  without  reducing  speed.  Crossing 


26 


the  desert  the  heat  became  oppressive,  his  mackinaws  grew  heavy 
and  the  snowshoes  dragged  his  feet  but  it  was  too  late  to  turn  back. 

When  he  arrived  in  California  he  discovered  that  the  sun  and  hot 
sand  had  warped  one  of  his  shoes  and  pulled  one  foot  out  of  line  at 
every  step,  so  instead  of  travelling  on  a  bee  line  and  hitting  Westwood 
exactly,  he  came  out  at  San  Francisco.  This  made  it  necessary  for 
him  to  travel  an  extra  three  hundred  miles  north.  It  was  late  that 
night  when  he  pulled  into  Westwood  and  he  had  used  up  a  whole  day 
coming  from  Minnesota. 

Paul's  fast  foot  work  made  him  a  "good  man  on  the  round  stuff" 
and  in  spite  of  his  weight  he  had  no  trouble  running  around  on  the 
floating  logs,  even  the  small  ones.  It  was  said  that  Paul  could  spin 
a  log  till  the  bark  came  off  and  then  run  ashore  on  the  bubbles.  He 
once  threw  a  peavy  handle  into  the  Mississippi  at  St.  Louis  and 
standing  on  it,  poled  up  to  Brainerd,  Minnesota.  Paul  was  a  "white 
water  bucko"  and  rode  water  so  rough  it  would  tear  an  ordinary  man 
in  two  to  drink  out  of  the  river. 

444 

JOHNNY  Inkslinger  was  PauFsheadquarters  clerk.  He  invented  book- 
*•'  keeping  about  the  time  Paul  invented  logging.  He  was  something  of  a 
genius  and  perfected  his  own  office  appliances  to  increase  efficiency. 
His  fountain  pen  was  made 
by  running  a  hose  from  a 
barrel  of  ink  and  with  it  he 
could  "daub    out    a   walk" 
quicker  than  the  recipient  of 
the    pay-off    could    tie    the 
knot  in  his  tussick  rope. 

One  winter  Johnny  left 
off  crossing  the  "t's"  and 
dotting  the  "i's"  and  saved 
nine  barrels  of  ink.  The 
lumberjacks  accused  him  of 
using  a  split  pencil  to  charge 
up  the  tobacco  and  socks 
they  bought  at  the  wanagan 
but  this  was  just  bunkshanty 
talk  (is  this  the  origin  of 
the  classic  term  "the 
bunk"?)  for  Johnny  never 
cheated  anyone. 


27 


L_TAVE  you  ever  encountered  the  Mosquito  of  the  North  Country? 
A  -*•  You  thought  they  were  pretty  well  developed  animals  with  keen 
appetites  didn't  you?  Then  you  can  appreciate  what  Paul  Bunyan 
was  up  against  when  he  was  surrounded  by  the  vast  swarms  of  the 
giant  ancestors  of  the  present  race  of  mosquitoes,  getting  their  first 
taste  of  human  victims.  The  present  mosquito  is  but  a  degenerate 
remnant  of  the  species.  Now  they  rarely  weigh  more  than  a  pound 
or  measure  more  than  fourteen  or  fifteen  inches  from  tip  to  tip. 

Paul  had  to  keep  his  men  and  oxen  in  the  camps  with  doors  and 
windows  barred.  Men  armed  with  pike-poles  and  axes  fought  off  the 
insects  that  tore  the  shakes  off  the  roof  in  their  efforts  to  gain  en 
trance.  The  big  buck  mosquitoes  fought  among  themselves  and 
trampled  down  the  weaker  members  of  the  swarm  and  to  this  alone 
Paul  Bunyan  and  his  crew  owe  their  lives. 

Paul  determined  to  conquer  the  mosquitoes  before  another 
season  arrived.  He  thought  of  the  big  Bumble  Bees  back  home 
and  sent  for  several  yoke  of  them.  These,  he  hoped  would  destroy 
the  mosquitoes.  Sourdough  Sam  brought  out  two  pair  of  the  bees, 
overland  on  foot.  There  was  no  other  way  to  travel  for  the  flight 
of  the  beasts  could  not  be  controlled.  Their  wings  were  strapped 
with  surcingles,  they  checked  their  stingers  with  Sam  and  walking 
shoes  were  provided  for  them.  Sam  brought  them  through  without 
losing  a  bee. 

The  cure  was  worse  than  the  original  trouble.  The  Mosquitoes 
and  the  Bees  made  a  hit  with  each  other.  They  soon  intermarried 
and  their  off -spring,  as  often  happens,  were  worse  than  their  parents. 
They  had  stingers  fore-and-aft  and  could  get  you  coming  or  going. 


28 


Their  bee  blood  caused  their 
downfall  in  the  long  run.  Their 
craving  for  sweets  could  only  be 
satisfied  by  sugar  and  molasses  in 
large  quantities,  for  what  is  a  flower 
to  an  insect  with  a  ten-gallon  stom 
ach?  One  day  the  whole  tribe  flew 
across  Lake  Superior  to  attack  a 
fleet  of  ships  bringing  sugar  to 
Paul's  camps.  They  destroyed  the 
ships  but  ate  so  much  sugar  they 
could  not  fly  and  all  were  drowned. 

One  pair  of  the  original  bees 
were  kept  at  headquarters  camp  and 
provided  honey  for  the  pancakes  for 
many  years. 


F  F  Paul  Bunyan  did  not  invent  Geography  he  created  a  lot  of  it. 
The  Great  Lakes  were  first  constructed  to  provide  a  water  hole 
for  Babe  the  Big  Blue  Ox.    Just  what  year  this  work  was  done  is  not 
known  but  they  were  in  use  prior  to  the  Year  of  the  Two  Winters. 

The  Winter  Paul  Bunyan  logged  off  North  Dakota  he  hauled 
water  for  his  ice  roads  from  the  Great  Lakes.  One  day  when  Brim 
stone  Bill  had  Babe  hitched  to  one  of  the  old  water  tanks  and  was 
making  his  early  morning  trip,  the  tank  sprung  a  leak  when  they  were 
half  way  across  Minnesota.  Bill  saved  himself  from  drowning  by 
climbing  Babe's  tail  but  all  efforts  to  patch  up  the  tank  were  in  vain 
so  the  old  tank  was  abandoned  and  replaced  by  one  of  the  new  ones. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  the  Mississippi  River  and  the  truth  of  this 
is  established  by  the  fact  that  the  old  Mississippi  is  still  flowing. 

The  cook's  in  Paul's  camps  used  a  lot  of  water  and  to  make 
things  handy,  they  used  to  dig  wells  near  the  cook  shanty.  At  head 
quarters  on  the  Big  Auger,  on  top  of  the  hill  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Little  Gimlet,  Paul  dug  a  well  so  deep  that  it  took  all  day  for  the 
bucket  to  fall  to  the  water,  and  a  week  to  haul  it  up.  They  had  to  run 
so  many  buckets  that  the  well  was  forty  feet  in  diameter.  It  was 
shored  up  with  tamarac  poles  and  when  the  camp  was  abandoned  Paul 
pulled  up  this  cribbing.  Travellers  who  have  visited  the  spot  say  that 
the  sand  has  blown  away  until  178  feet  of  the  well  is  sticking  up  into 
the  air,  forming  a  striking  landmark. 


29 


WHAT  is  camp  without  a  dog?  Paul  Bunyan  loved  dogs  as  well 
as  the  next  man  but  never  would  have  one  around  that  could 
not  earn  its  keep.  Paul's  dogs  had  to  work,  hunt  or  catch  rats.  It 
took  a  good  dog  to  kill  the  rats  and  mice  in  Paul's  camps  for  the 
rodents  picked  up  scraps  of  the  buffalo  milk  pancakes  and  grew  to 
be  as  big  as  two  year  old  bears. 

Elmer,  the  moose  terrier,  practiced  up  on  the  rats  when  he  was 
a  small  pup  and  was  soon  able  to  catch  a  moose  on  the  run  and  finish 
it  with  one  shake.  Elmer  loafed  around  the  cook  camp  and  if  the 
meat  supply  happened  to  run  low  the  cook  would  put  the  dog  out  the 
door  and  say,  "Bring  in  a  moose."  Elmer  would  run  into  the  timber, 
catch  a  moose  and  bring  it  in  and  repeat  the  performance  until,  after 
a  few  minutes  work,  the  cook  figured  he  had  enough  for  a  mess  and 
would  call  the  dog  in. 

Sport,  the  reversible  dog  was  really  the  best  hunter.  He  was 
part  wolf  and  part  elephant  hound  and  was  raised  on  bear  milk. 
One  night  when  Sport  was  quite  young,  he  was  playing  around  in  the 
horse  barn  and  Paul,  mistaking  him  for  a  mouse,  threw  a  hand  axe 
at  him.  The  axe  cut  the  dog  in  two  but  Paul,  instantly  realizing  what 
had  happened,  quickly  stuck  the  two  halves  together,  gave  the  pup 
first  aid  and  bandaged  him  up.  With  careful  nursing  the  dog 
soon  recovered  and  then  it  was  seen  that  Paul  in  his  haste  had  twisted 


30 


the  two  halves  so  that  the  hind  legs  pointed  straight  up.  This  proved 
to  be  an  advantage  for  the  dog  learned  to  run  on  one  pair  of  legs  for 
a  while  and  then  flop  over  without  loss  of  speed  and  run  on  the  other 
pair.  Because  of  this  he  never  tired  and  anything  he  started  after 
got  caught.  Sport  never  got  his  full  growth.  While  still  a  pup  he 
broke  through  four  feet  of  ice  on  Lake  Superior  and  was  drowned. 

As  a  hunter,  Paul  would  make  old  Nimrod  himself  look  like  a 
city  dude  lost  from  his  guide.  He  was  also  a  good  fisherman.  Old- 
timers  tell  of  seeing  Paul  as  a  small  boy,  fishing  off  the  Atlantic 
Coast.  He  would  sail  out  early  in  the  morning  in  his  three-mast 
schooner  and  wade  back  before  breakfast  with  his  boat  full  of  fish 
on  his  shoulder. 

About  this  time  he  got  his  shot  gun  that  required  four  dishpans 
full  of  powder  and  a  keg  of  spikes  to  load  each  barrel.  With  this 
gun  he  could  shoot  geese  so  high  in  the  air  they  would  spoil  before 
reaching  the  ground. 

Tracking  was  Paul's  favorite  sport  and  no  trail  was  too  old  or 
too  dim  for  him  to  follow.  He  once  came  across  the  skeleton  of  a 
moose  that  had  died  of  old  age  and,  just  for  curiosity,  picked  up 
the  tracks  of  the  animal  and  spent  the  whole  afternoon  following  its 
trail  back  to  the  place  where  it  was 
born. 

The  shaggy  dog  that  spent  most 
of  his  time  pretending  to  sleep  in 
front  of  Johnny  Inkslinger's  counter 
in  the  camp  office  was  Fido,  the 
watch  dog.  Fido  was  the  bug-bear 
(not  bearer,  just  bear)  of  the  green 
horns.  They  were  told  that  Paul 
starved  Fido  all  winter  and  then, 
just  before  payday,  fed  him  all  the 
swampers,  barn  boys  and  student 
bull-cooks.  The  very  marrow  was 
frozen  in  their  heads  at  the  thought 
of  being  turned  into  dog  food.  Their 
fears  were  groundless  for  Paul 
would  never  let  a  dog  go  hungry  or 
mistreat  a  human  being.  Fido  was 
fed  all  the  watch  peddlers,  tailors' 
agents,  and  camp  inspectors  and 
thus  served  a  very  useful  purpose. 


31 


HEN  Paul  Bunyan  took  up  efficiency  engineering  he  went  at 
the  job  with  all  his  customary  thoroughness.  He  did  not  fool 
around  clocking  the  crew  with  a  stop  watch,  counting  motions  and 
deducting  the  ones  used  for  borrowing  chews,  going  for  drinks, 
dodging  the  boss  and  preparing  for  quitting  time.  He  decided  to 
cut  out  labor  altogether. 

"What's  the  use,"  said  Paul,  of  all  this  sawing,  swamping,  skidd 
ing,  decking,  grading  and  icing  roads,  loading,  hauling  and  landing? 
The  object  of  the  game  is  to  get  the  trees  to  the  landing,  ain't  it? 
Well,  why  not  do  it  and  get  it  off 
your  mind?" 


So  he  hitched  Babe  to  a  sec 
tion  of  land  and  snaked  in  the 
whole  640  acres  at  one  drag.  At 
the  landing  the  trees  were  cut  off 
just  like  shearing  a  sheep  and  the 
denuded  section  hauled  back  to  it's 
original  place.  This  simplified 
matters  and  made  the  work  a  lot 
easier.  Six  trips  a  day,  six  days 
a  week  just  cleaned  up  a  township 
for  section  37  was  never  hauled 
back  to  the  woods  on  Saturday 
night  but  was  left  on  the  landing 
to  wash  away  in  the  early  spring 
when  the  drive  went  out. 

Documentary  evidence  of  the 
truth  of  this  is  offered  by  the 
United  States  government  surveys. 
Look  at  any  map  that  shows  the 
land  subdivisions  and  you  will 
never  find  a  township  with  more 
than  thirty-six  sections. 


Westwood,  Cal.  Dec.  32  (Special)  Haul 
ing  in  the  last  section  37  in  California  to 
day.  Brimstone  Bill,  the  bullwhacker  in 
charge  of  Babe,  the  Big  Blue  Ox,  met 
with  an  accident  that  would  have  been 
fatal  but  for  the  prompt  action  of  Paul 
Bunyan.  The  section  skidded  on  a  bad 
turn  and  buried  Brimstone  against  the 
mountain  side.  Mr.  Bunyan  hitched 
Babe  to  the  mountain  and  pulled  it 
away,  releasing  Brimstone  who  is  re 
covering  in  the  Westwood  Hospital. 


32 


The  foregoing  statement,  previously  published,  has  caused  some 
controversy.  Mr.  T.  S.  Sowell  of  Miami,  Florida  wrote  to  us  citing 
the  townships  in  his  State  that  have  sections  numbered  37  to  40. 
He  said  that  the  government  survey  had  been  complicated  by  the  old 
Spanish  land  grants.  We  put  the  matter  up  to  Paul  Bunyan  and  from 
his  camp  near  Westwood  came  this  reply: 

Red  River  Advertising  Department. 

Dear  Sir:  Yes  sir,  I  remember  those  sections  and  a  lot 
of  bother  they  made  me  too.  One  winter  when  I  was 
starting  the  White  Pine  business  and  snaking  sections 
down  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  a  man  from  Florida  came 
along  and  ordered  a  bunch  of  sections  delivered  down  to 
his  place.  He  wanted  to  see  if  he  could  grow  the  same 
kind  of  White  Pine  down  there.  I  yarded  out  a  nice  bunch 
of  sections  and  next  summer  when  my  drive  was  in  and 
I  wasn't  busy  I  took  a  crew  of  Canada  Boys  and  Mainites 
and  poled  them  down  the  coast.  When  I  come  to  collect 
they  said  this  man  was  gone  looking  for  a  Fountain  of 
Youth  or  some  fool  thing. 

I  don't  know  what  luck  he  had  with  his  White  Pine 
ranch.  I  never  seen  them  again.  I  had  a  lot  of  other 
things  to  tend  to  and  clean  forgot  it  till  you  sent  me  Mr. 
Sowell's  letter.  Maybe  that  man  was  a  Spaniard  I  don't 
know.  Yours  respectively, 

P.  BUNYAN. 


ROM  1917  to  1920  Paul  Bunyan  was  busy  toting  the  supplies 
and  building  camps  for  a  bunch  of  husky  young  fellow-Ameri 
cans  who  had  a  contract  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  showing  a 
certain  prominent  European  (who  is  now  logging  in  Holland)  how 
they  log  in  the  United  States. 

After  his  service  overseas  with  the  A.  E.  F.,  Paul  couldn't  get 
back  to  the  States  quick  enough.  Airplanes  were  too  slow  so  Paul 
embarked  in  his  Bark  Canoe,  the  one  he  used  on  the  Big  Onion  the 
year  he  drove  logs  upstream.  When  he  threw  the  old  paddle  into 
high  he  sure  rambled  and  the  sea  was  covered  with  dead  fish  that 
broke  their  backs  trying  to  watch  him  coming  and  going. 

As  he  shoved  off  from  France,  Paul  sent  a  wireless  to  New  York 
but  passed  the  Statue  of  Liberty  three  lengths  ahead  of  the  message. 
From  New  York  to  Westwood  he  travelled  on  skis.  When  the  home 
folks  asked  him  if  the  Allegheney  Mountains  and  the  Rockies  had 
bothered  him,  Paul  replied,  "I  didn't  notice  any  mountains  but  the 
trail  was  a  little  bumpy  in  a  couple  of  spots." 

33 


T)  ACK  in  the  early  days,  when  his  camps  were  so  far  from  anywhere 
that  the  wolves  following  the  tote-teams  got  lost  in  the  woods, 
Paul  Bunyan  made  no  attempt  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  trade.  What's 
the  use  when  every  letter  that  comes  in  is  about  things  that  happened 
the  year  before? 

Since  he  came  to  Westwood  Paul  has  renewed  old  friendships, 
formed  new  ones  and  kept  close  contact  with  the  world.  Everyone 
expects  great  things  of  Paul  Bunyan  and  with  the  Red  River  outfit 
back  of  him  he  has  the  chance  of  his  life  to  make  good.  Continuous 
production  keeps  a  full  assortment  of  stock  on  hand.  Customers  in 
all  parts  of  America  find  Westwood  a  dependable  source  of  supply. 

Here  is  an  instance.  This  old  friend  of  Paul's,  a  prominent 
furniture  manufacturer  in  the  Lake  States,  was  disappointed  because 
an  item  he  wanted  for  immediate  shipment  was  not  in  stock  in  the 
grade  and  thickness  required.  He  wrote  the  letter  shown  below  and 
was  given  an  explanation  of  the  facts  in  the  case  in  the  accompany 
ing  reply. 


The  Red  River  Lumber  Co., 

807  Hennepin  Ave  ,  Minneapolis 

Gentlemen: — 

Answering  yours  of  June  28th  we  think  our  mutual 
friend  Paul  is  slipping  in  his  old  age.  When  the 
writer  worked  for  him  on  the  "Butter  Ball,"  a  tributary 
of  the  Big  Onion,  Paul  furnished  any  thickness  and 
grade  wanted  immediately.  As  in  this  case,  if  5/4  was 
wanted  and  he  only  had  inch,  he  immediately  dumped  it 
into  the  river  and  let  it  swell  to  that  thickness.  In 
fact,  he  was  so  accurate  that  he  used  a  micrometer  to 
gauge  the  thickness  of  his  lumber  so  that  there  was  no 
trouble  to  get  it  to  uniform  thickness 


As  we  are  using  more 
Fir,  we  wish  you  would  in.ii 
tain  Tea  as  a  stimulant 
think  being  right  near 
cheapest  thing  to  g^ 
to  keep  some  of  this^ 
we  want 

When  in  the  mari 
with  you  and  see  if  t 


,nd  more  of  this  5/4  #1 
!Ct  a  little  Roekv  Voun- 


_Furniture  Mfg.  Co., 


Gentlemen: — 

Replying  to  yours  of  June  29th,  it  would  rather 
seem  that  you  have  the  goods  on  our  mutual  friend 
Paul   There  are,  however,  some  mitigating  circum 
stances  which  have  prevented  him  from  producing  5/4 
by  the  time  honored  system  which  you  suggest. 

The  water  supply  for  Westwood  comes  from  Screw 
Auger  Creek  in  Gum  Boot  Canyon.   During  th-3  recent 
hot  spell  it  was  necessary  for  the  first  time  since 
the  days  when  Paul  logged  off  all  of  Arizona  and 
Texas  to  water  Babe,  the  big  blue  ox,  twice  in  one 
season  and  the  only  place  available  where  there  was 
sufficient  water  to  give  him  a  drink  was  Ssrew  Au 
ger  Canyon   Babe  drank  this  so  dry  that  it  has  not 
run  any  since,  consequently  we  have  no  water  with 
which  to  soak  up  4/4  into  5/4    Wo  are  in  hopes, 
however,  that  time  will  remedy  this  situation  and 
trust  that  the  next  time  you  have  need  for  any  5/4 
stock,  that  we  may  have  the  pleasure  of  hearing 
from  you. 

Very  truly  yours, 

The  Red  River  Lumber  Co., 
ADW  RK  By  Archie  D  Walker 


34 


PAUL 

BUNYAN'S 
PINE 

CALIFORNIA       WHITE 
And      SUGAR        PINES 

"Specified  where 
economy  is  a  vital 
factor,  or  where  the 
best  is  used  regard 
less  of  cost." 

WHITE  FIR 
INCENSE  CEDAR 


"The  old-fashioned  White  Pine  our  grandfathers  used!" 

How  often  have  you  wished  for  it,  the  soft,  even  textured,  easy- 
working  wood  that  took  paint  so  well  and  weathered  the  years  with 
out  a  warp  or  a  check? 

Here  it  is,  friends,  better  than  ever, — clear  plank  48  inches  wide  if  you 
want  them.  Red  River  products  excel  in  workmanship,  precise  cutting, 
perfect  seasoning.  YARD  STOCKS,  all  items  and  grades,  boards,  dimension, 
moldings,  lath  and  sidings.  FACTORY  LUMBER,  sash  and  door  cuttings 
and  industrial  cuttings  for  any  requirement.  BOX  SHOOKS  and  crate  stocks 
of  every  description.  SASH  AND  DOORS,  standard  and  made  to  order. 
PATTERN  STOCK,  large  sizes,  easy  working,  durable. 

Saving  in  working-up  costs,  by  hand  or  machine;  light  weight  and  the 
superior  quality,— grade  for  grade,  make  PAUL  BUNYAN'S  PINES  the 
most  profitable  to  buy,  to  work  or  to  sell.  Distributed  to  all  parts  of 
America  and  to  foreign  countries. 

Largest  Manufacturers  of  California  Pines. 

"Producers  of  White  Pine  for  over  Half  a  Century." 

The  RED  RIVER  LUMBER  CO. 

T.  B.  WALKER,  PRESIDENT. 

GILBERT  M.  WALKER,  VICE  PRESIDENT     FLETCHER  L.  WALKER,  TREASURER 
WILLIS  J.    WALKER,   VICE    PRESIDENT     ARCHIE  D.  WALKER,  SECRETARY 

Mills,  Factories  &  Sales  Office,   R.  F.  Pray,  Resident  Mgr.   WESTWOOD  CALIF. 


General  Office  and  Sales, 
Yards   and   Sales   Office, 
Sales  Office, 
Sales  Office, 


807   Hennepin   Ave., 
2452   Loomis    St., 
307  Monadnock   Bldg., 
832  Unoin  Oil  Bldg., 


MINNEAPOLIS,  MINN. 
CHICAGO,    ILL. 
SAN  FRANCISCO,  CALIF. 
LOS  ANGLES,  CALIF, 


Extra  Copies  of  This  Book  Mailed  Free  Upon  Request. 


35 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY,  LOS  ANGELES 

COLLEGE  LIBRARY 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


. 


REC'D  COL,  LIB 


UCLA 
htfcxB 

116SO 
Bo9(9 

Lo«  Angeiae, 


lioona 


neionroh  Libra 


CA   90(395-1575 


Book  Slip — Series  4280 


.PAMPHLET  BINDER 

Syracuse.  N.  Y. 
Stockton,  Colif. 


UCLA-College  Library 

PS461B8L3 


L  005  716  984  9 


College 
Library 


PS 

*f6l 

B8L3 


001  199  007     4 


